


Red Alert

by CupidStrikes



Series: Keith Week 2016 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Keithweek 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-18 03:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8147765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CupidStrikes/pseuds/CupidStrikes
Summary: Piloting a Lion is nothing like flying a conventional spacecraft.





	

**Author's Note:**

> September 27th: Red Lion | Combat
> 
> Lyrics are from Cigarettes & Valentines by Green Day, which I find oddly fitting for Keith.

_**September 27th:**_ **Red Lion |** Combat

 

**Red Alert**

_There's a siren screaming:_  
_"I'm alive" it cries._

Piloting a Lion is nothing like flying a conventional spacecraft.

Driving a car or his hover bike has nothing on it. There is no definitive control over its motions, and yet Keith never feels like it runs on auto-pilot. If he had to compare it to anything, he would say that it felt like an extension of himself.

The exercises that Allura and Coran had forced them into in the first few days of their Paladinship hadn't made any sense until now, when a simple flick of his hand on the control shift has his Lion pivoting out of the way of a blast and towards the less agile Black and Green Lions, firing its own lasers back as it goes. Keith still doesn't understand the use of half of the buttons on his console; few of them are labelled and those that are the writing is Altaen and so ancient that even Coran isn't sure of the translation, and none of them seem to do the same thing twice.

The Lion is a creature of necessity and Keith understands that much.

Keith is aware of its presence on the fringes of his mind like a comfortable weight around his shoulders that spreads to his entire body when he sits in the cockpit.

He had thought Lance's waxing poetics about the Blue Lion talking to him had been mere hyperbole as Lance was inclined to do, but recently he had heard it too. Or, rather, been aware of it. The Red Lion didn't so much 'talk' as communicate non-verbally. Telepathy, but with no audible language aside a purr that filled the background awareness of his mind like static or tinnitus.

“ _The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master._  
_It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable._  
_Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone.”_

“ _Patience yields focus”_

Allura's words stick in his mind, intertwined with Shiro's, and they come to him now and then in battle like a mantra even as he's snarling threats and taunts at their foes. His Lion's roars echo the sentiment as he uses an asteroid to propel himself towards the Galra command ship that has been giving them grief for the past several Earth hours.

The blaster on the end of the Red Lion's tail activates as his fingers go for the button and the Lion rakes at the ship's exterior with its claws on Keith's non-verbal command. They are one in this moment, with a common enemy and common goal.

Victory or death.

Keith snarls as he jerks the controls forward into another attack.

He hears Red roar in response, and seconds later, the calls and roars of the other Paladins and their Lions, and then Red is purring when Shiro gives the command as they change course and return to their pride and Keith lets his eyes close as they form Voltron.

He reopens them to an awareness beyond himself, beyond Red, and their battle cry rings in his ears as he locks his Bayard into the port and summons Voltron's sword.

This is nothing like anything Keith has ever done before, but it comes to him as easy as breathing now, and in that moment, hurtling back into battle at a speed human crafts could only dream of, Keith feels complete.

 

 _To the end of the earth_  
_Under the valley of the stars_  
_There's a car crashing_  
_Deep inside my heart._

 


End file.
